Nashville

Nashville Music and Manners Richard Schweid

‘Authentic and insightful, Richard Schweid’s new book chronicles how Nashville became America’s “It City,” a hub of entertainment and culture – a place advocates of the New South never foresaw. A must read for natives and visitors alike.’ – Frank Sutherland, former editor-in-chief of The Tennessean

Nashville is a city of sublime contrasts, an intellectual hub built on a devotion to God, country music and the Devil’s pleasures. Refined and raucous, it has long represented both culture and downright fun, capable of embracing pre-Civil War mansions and manners, as well as honky-tonk bars and trailer parks. Nouvelle cuisine co-exists with barbeque and cornbread; the Frist Museum of Contemporary Art is nearby the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Nashville has, in less than eighty years, transformed from a small, conservative, Bible-thumping city into a booming metropolis. Nashvillian Richard Schweid tells the history of how it all came to pass, and colourfully describes contemporary Nashville and the changes and upheavals it has gone through to make it the South’s most exciting and thriving city.

Journalist and author Richard Schweid worked for ten years as a reporter for The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper. His previous books include Invisible Nation: Homeless Families in America (2016).

The history and modern face of Nashville, the most colourful city in the South

cityscopes March 2021 • History/Travel isbn 978 1 78914 315 7 216 × 138 • 224 pp 126 illustrations, 81 in colour Hardback • £14.95/$22 ebook 978 1 78914 316 4 World Rights: Reaktion

A Band With Built-In Hate The Who from Pop Art to Punk Peter Stanfield

‘Ours is music with built-in hatred.’ – Pete Townshend

A Band with Built-In Hate pictures The Who from their inception as the Detours in the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, post-Quadrophenia. It is a story of impudence, ambition, glamour and grit, all viewed through the prism of Pop art and the radical levelling of high and low culture that it brought about.

Peter Stanfield guides us through the British pop revolution as it was embodied by the band: first, under the mentorship of arch-Mod Peter Meaden; and then with Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, two aspiring filmmakers at the very centre of things in Soho. Guided by contemporary commentators – most conspicuously, Nik Cohn – Stanfield tells of a band driven by fury, and of what happened when they moved from explosive 45s to expansive concept albums. Ultimately, he describes how The Who confronted their lost youth as it was echoed in punk.

Peter Stanfield’s books include Maximum Movies: Pulp Fictions (2011) and Hoodlum Movies (2018). Music is integral to his work, be it the blue yodel of a singing cowboy or the chug ’n’ churn of a biker soundtrack. He lives in Ramsgate, Kent.

A new portrait of The Who from Pop Art to Punk

March 2021 • Music isbn 978 1 78914 277 8 216 × 138 mm • 320 pp 40 illustrations Hardback • £15.99/$22.50 ebook 978 1 78914 278 5 World Rights: Reaktion